Many people have shown an interest in continuing our discussion of “novelty”, so perhaps we can use this post to bounce ideas and share other papers on this topic. Some of the key themes/questions we were left wondering about were:

What is a “novel” trait, and how can/should you define it?

Is the classification of a trait as “novel” dependent on scale?

If so, what kinds of scale (e.g., temporal, developmental)?

How do you define scale in a useful way for studying macroevolution?

Can a novel trait really only arise from horizontal gene transfer?

Is there a disconnect between the fields of evo-devo and macroevolution in terms of defining “novelty”?

EBJClubber or not, anyone and everyone should feel free to join in this discussion. Leave your comments below!

Here is something that I found just now, that might help us think about what novelty actually means in evolutionary biology. It’s too late to read it now, of course, but it should be a good follow-up read.